Let's see your Night Vision Rigs

[bobfried]

I have been searching but could not find a night time oriented gear thread. So I am going to start one, figure this forum is as good as any other. Post anything you got night time related, flashlight, NVG, IR, thermal, whatever you would use at night and not necessarily during the day.

I'll start:

[Dead*Reckoned]

[Dead*Reckoned]

I'm just kidding, if love a setup like yours but I can't justify it. Maybe someday ill get a thermal monocular for hunting when I live out of state.

[bobfried]

Your too high tech:

[Chaos47]

Your too high tech:

psh! real operators do with with just a firebow




But really OP, nice setup!

[stix213]

Damn beat me to it lol

[ClarenceBoddicker]

Strangely enough, not too many on here are into Night Vision. I've got a decent collection of starlight scopes & handheld IR viewers and flashlights. I'm probably going to get a few goggles like the SU-49 & PVS-5. Not a big fan of the 18mm tube stuff so far. I may try to find a gen3 or hybrid tube of one of my PVS-4s.

PVS-1, PVS-2, TVS-2, PVS-3, PVS-4, PAS-6, 1PN-34, 1PN-58 & a few Russian commercial toys

[LMTluvr]

That's freaking hilarious!

[uhlan1]

Every time the farm behind us tills, our property gets inundated with tree/wood rats. Those cute little guys that look like kangaroo rats...but rats nonetheless. Takes a while for the barn cats to get them under control and in the meantime my wife drives me nuts about it. Between the dogs, cats and horses, can't/won't use poison bait and have to be very careful with traps. Never see them during the day, only seem active at night. I have a nice Sig 522. Don't want to spend a fortune on night vision but I see generation one scopes out there for around 300 bucks. Are these any good? Would they work on rats? Rats in brush? Or would I be wasting my money.The cats whack 'em all eventually, but in the meantime i fear my wife is going to give me a stroke.

[john67elco]

Where can I buy a cheap monocular? They are high everywhere I look

[bobfried]

Gen 1 is a complete waste of money. You can literally see better with a your naked eye or a good pair of binoculars. They only work when you blast the area with a huge IR light source which of course raises the cost even more. The only exceptions are cascade series of tubes, but than the cost is approaching Gen 2 anyways.

For about $700 you can find some used older Gen 2 stuff and it is literally light years ahead of Gen 1. Gen 3 is where it's at though and right now TNVC has them for $2500 give or take.

Gen 1 to Gen 2 = like going from walking to a nice Honda
Gen 2 to Gen 3 = from the Honda to a BMW

The cost of Gen 2 is more than worthwhile, Gen 3 is prohibitive and unless you have the money is probably not worth the upgrade from Gen 2. Find a Gen 2 scope, buy a decent IR light and you are good to go.

Think of it as a nice weapon versus a simple sighting system. Once you get a nice set of NVG you will never go back, I would give up way more things than NVG's. They literally make you 100% more effective at night; whether that's walking around or taking down a bad guy.

[Yugo]

got one of these

http://www.co-optimus.com/article/2177/Buy_Night_Vision_Goggles__Get_Modern_Warfare_2.html

[TAK]

I have been searching but could not find a night time oriented gear thread. So I am going to start one, figure this forum is as good as any other. Post anything you got night time related, flashlight, NVG, IR, thermal, whatever you would use at night and not necessarily during the day.

I'll start:

You spend all that money but you cant but a nice chinstrap or nape pad on there?

[Dannicus]

Whats that blue wedge on the back of the helmet?

[ClarenceBoddicker]

Every time the farm behind us tills, our property gets inundated with tree/wood rats. Those cute little guys that look like kangaroo rats...but rats nonetheless. Takes a while for the barn cats to get them under control and in the meantime my wife drives me nuts about it. Between the dogs, cats and horses, can't/won't use poison bait and have to be very careful with traps. Never see them during the day, only seem active at night. I have a nice Sig 522. Don't want to spend a fortune on night vision but I see generation one scopes out there for around 300 bucks. Are these any good? Would they work on rats? Rats in brush? Or would I be wasting my money.The cats whack 'em all eventually, but in the meantime i fear my wife is going to give me a stroke.

Forget the Russian commercial stuff unless you want to use IR. Even then they have lame optics & Russian gen1 18mm tubes suffer from bad "fishbowl" distortion. Check out my posts about Night Vision in the scopes & optics section. You can get a very capable USGI 1st gen in the $500 range, that can rival the performance of the early 3rd gen stuff. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Gen 1 is a complete waste of money. You can literally see better with a your naked eye or a good pair of binoculars. They only work when you blast the area with a huge IR light source which of course raises the cost even more. The only exceptions are cascade series of tubes, but than the cost is approaching Gen 2 anyways.

For about $700 you can find some used older Gen 2 stuff and it is literally light years ahead of Gen 1. Gen 3 is where it's at though and right now TNVC has them for $2500 give or take.

Gen 1 to Gen 2 = like going from walking to a nice Honda Wrong, with gen1 cascade tubes
Gen 2 to Gen 3 = from the Honda to a BMW

The cost of Gen 2 is more than worthwhile, Gen 3 is prohibitive and unless you have the money is probably not worth the upgrade from Gen 2. Find a Gen 2 scope, buy a decent IR light and you are good to go.

Think of it as a nice weapon versus a simple sighting system. Once you get a nice set of NVG you will never go back, I would give up way more things than NVG's. They literally make you 100% more effective at night; whether that's walking around or taking down a bad guy.

You can find good deals on PVS-2s for around $300. The gen2 tubes have less sensitivity then the gen1 cascade tubes as used in the PVS-2. The only good things about the gen2 tubes is that they have an adjustable gain, illuminated reticle & no "fishbowl" distortion compared to the gen1 cascade tubes. The gen1 cascade tubes outperform the gen2 & are a better deal if you can live with an etched non illuminated reticle & "fishbowl" distortion at the edges. The center is distortion free. My gen1 cascade scopes kick butt over my PVS-4s, including one with a NOS gen2 tube. What good is having a distortion free image, if you have less resolution?

It's very hard to find a good deal on a PVS-4 unless you are willing to take a risk on a unit that does not power up. Good tubes are getting hard to find now. 25mm gen3 tubes are hard to find & expensive. Not all of them will work in a PVS-4 due to the lame design of the scope. The only cheap gen2 scope other then finding a great deal on a PVS-4 is the SC/PVS-300, which STANO made using a PVS-3 cut down to fit a PVS-5 tube. Not suitable for .308, like the PVS-4 is.

"Cheap" gen3 can be a bad deal if the tube is an early one. Most will not have data sheets. There is quite a range in performance with gen3 tubes & many have been repotted so you down know what you really have. Some 18mm gen2 & gen3 tubes can have issues with too much recoil, unlike the 25mm tubes due to the MCP flexing. Raptors are not cheap & AFAIK only use 18mm tubes.